So this is the first post in a series of posts on how to do your nails for Halloween. Now, some of you may be saying, why are you posting about Halloween when it is only late July? My answer is simple, all the stores are starting to prep for Halloween and people are starting to think about what costumes they would like to wear, so in this series of posts, I will walk you through how to do your nails and in some examples, hair to properly match any main stream costume and then take your costume, hair and nails to the next level. We’ll also do this using OPI Nail Polish colors and products that you can find at HaircareDiscounters.com.
The first two goulishy get ups we will start with are the Zombie and the Vampire or Vampiress.
To create Zombie nails is fun and easy. We need to start with thinking what a zombie is and where they may be crawling out of the ground from. For example, if your zombie is from a snowy area, there may be snow and dirt mixed into their nails and they could have some chips since they had to fight through frozen ground, while zombies in New Orleans may only have to stand up since the ground is wet and easy to get through. Zombies are also flesh eaters or brain eaters (depending on which movie you watched) so you can also incorporate this into your nails and start to really get this costume going.
So anyways, onto the first set of hair and nails, snow zombie nails.
Zombie Nails
Frozen Zombies
Snow zombies are frozen so I like to use a lot of whites and blues. Here are a few nail colors that I love for this.

OPI Alpine Snow White Nail Polish

OPI Give Me The Moon

OPI Sahara Saphire
Now these three colors are ideal for a Zombie who has been in frozen ground but decided to come back and make himself or herself known. They all have icey traits and almost look frozen when they are placed together.
Now, here are a few zombie nails you can do using these colors.
1. Simple french manicures with silver on bottom and either other color on top. This is perfect for a high end recently dead zombie lady, and your nails still look fab.
2. You can take either the silver polish or the blue polish and make a solid base coat of them. Both of these are frozen colors so they work great for a frozen zombie. Then, take the other two shades of nail polish and drizzle them over your nails in sloppy thin and slightly thick lines so that the nail polish does not lay flat, but is actually raised into runny drops. This gives an effect that you are freshly awakened and ready to hunt for flesh. Fun, I know.
3. This is the most fun of the zombies, the fully dead, long since gone, ready to riot in a feeding frenzy zombie. There are two options here.  1. First use style number two above. Then take a blood read nail polish (You’ll see my recommendations below in the vampire section) and paint the tops of your nails and parts of your finger tips with it so it looks like you have been already feasting.  I like nail polish for this since it will last all night.  The other option for this gore gauging ghoul is to first apply fake nail tips and chip the tops of them. Then hang a little bit of fake flesh or even oatmeal and apply it with body glue from a costume shop. Then paint it green or silver with red speckles so that it looks like little bits of flesh stuck to your nails and over design two, you are now a fresh zombie out of the ground who is on the hunt for food. Gross…huh? I know, but think of how fabulous your nails will look and match your costume.
Now for the non frozen zombies.

OPI Black Onyx

OPI Call My CellEry

OPI Black Cherry Chutney
These are some of my favorite colors to work with for a classy event, and hey, they are even more my favorites when I get to dress them up for Halloween.
So basically, you can do any of the above with the focus on the OPI Call My Cellery green nail polish being the focus since it is a gory green for Halloween and can be great for Witches nails too.  Soo, here are some ideas.
1. Simple French Manicures with no extensions or tips, unless you chip the nails ahead of time to make it look like they were rampaging.
2. Use the Black Cherry Chutney nail polish color as a base coat. Drizzle thin liquid lines of green and black over it and paint your cuticles and the sides of your skin with the black for effect so that it now looks like green gore pouring off of your nails and the black just makes your nails look dead.
3. If you really want to take the last style to the next level, then add on extensions before hand and chip them. Then just like the snow zombie, use a skin friendly glue to glue fake pieces of painted flesh to your nails and they will all of the sudden look like the nails of your character who is a flesh hungry hunter in the night.
Now, for Zombie hair, remember, these guys are long since dead and gone. If you decide not to use a wig, then all you really need to do is mess up your hair and find a product that will hold. I highly recommend using for men’s hair, any of the fibers or waxes from American Crew because they allow your the flexibility to put clumps of hair together in whatever size you want, and they’ll hold them in place all night long. You could always use a hairspray like RUSK to hold it in place all night as well after if you would like.
For women, I recommend first brushing your hair out but keep it fluffy and bunchy towards the bottom. Then take leaves, white styrofoam crumbles or what not and mix them into your hair. Then put in a spray of Sebastian Hair Sprays to hold them in place. Then begin messing up your hair a bit and put random thick strands of hair leaning up every which way and cross them over eachother so your hair is a mess. If you want to take it to the next level, you can even add in fake spiders and bugs to the mix, then when all of it is all messed up again, use another heavy coat of Sebastian Spray and you should be set to go for the night. (On a side note, if you want thicker wet looking clumps in your hair, wet your hair down then use any get in the wet hair to hold it together, then begin adding in extras and shaping the hair once it is dry. This extra step done before hand really adds to the look, but does take extra time.)
Now time for the Vampires and Vampiresses.
This could be sexy or seductive so instead of breaking it out like we did for zombies above, I’m going to do men’s and womens.

OPI Got the Blues for Red
Men’s vampire nails.
1. Male vampires are sexy and seductive, until they feed. So, for the sexy seductive one, all you need to do is shape your nails and clean them, then use a clear nail polish on the top of them to just have a clean and clear look that is sophisticated and sexy.
2. Now, if you want to go into the scarrier type, put on nail extensions and file them into points at the top, then use the clear coat over them. If you want something extra on it, use the OPI Black Onyx nail polish we recommended above.
3. If you want to have scary nails for a vampire that is ready to feed, take the black nails from above and take the OPI Got the Blues for Red color for blood on them. You have two options for them, for the scary vampire attack, take the brush and flick it at your nails so you get blood spackles on them. For the sexy seductive blood feeding, take a small drop of the red nail polish and put it at the top of the nail and let it run down your nails so that it looks like blood poured down your nail. Now, since this color stays liquid looking when done right, leave it run down naturally and let it run down your fingers if it does, you were just feeding on someones neck and hey, the blood would pour and get your fingers messy so why not let it stay and really help the effect. The last step then is to take your clear nail polish when the blood dried and paint over the red blood so that it becomes shiney and still looks fresh. Those are some scary nails for a vampire to wear!
Women’s vampire nails.
Now, for the womens vampire nails, you can do this easily.
1. If you want to be sexy and seductive, just get extensions put on and make sure they are rounded to a point on the top. Then just select a very dark red or purple polish and paint it on. The one thing to make sure you do is to only buy extensions that go straight out and do not curve down. Now, also remember to get out of the stereotypical Black Nail Polish for women’s vampires, Female vampires are sexy, not goth so leave the black to the goths and get your nails seductive with a color like the Black Cherry Chutney or Go the Blue for Red colors. They are sexy and seductive and won’t make you look fake. You want real sexy and real seductive.
2. For a scary vampiress that has just fed, I would recommend doing the same nails that I recommended for men in number 3. Use these to not only show you have fed, but are also the queen vamp on the block so that the other vampiresses should back off your prey.
For Vampire hair for Men and Women.
Men, please get over the slicking and greasing your hair back. Wear it straight or forward and use a gel and spray to hold it in place. Then use a product like Sexy Hair Big Shine Spray to add that sexy wet and shiney look to your do.
If you have long hair, comb it or brush it out so that it falls nicely along side your face, or pull it back into a pony tail and use the big shine spray on it as well to add in a shine that shows that even though you may be dead, your hair is still sexy and alive.
For Women, I always love the full of life vampire hair instead of dead beat up wigs. If you have long hair, straighten it out completely using an iron from Babyliss or CHI and get it straight and lovely. This looks great for all hair colors.   Then use Sexy Hair’s Bg Sexy Shine Spray which you can find in the above link in the Men’s post.
The other style that is fabulous if you have long hair works amazing for blonds. Get yourself thick rich huge wavy curls and let them hang everywhere.
If you want to really spice up your hairstyles and have long hair, you can add in some fake blood and let it pour down your hair, but make sure it dries before you leave your bathroom, otherwise you will get a mess everywhere you walk and on everything your hair touches.
Now, if you are a Women and have short hair, I love short Women’s vampire hair when you paste it or glue it to your head so it is held neat and tight against your head. Vintage looks also work great. You can also take your bangs or hair on the top of your head, flatten a panel of hair and then use product to make shapes and spikes out of it for that sexy and sort of in your face look.
Anyways, not to get to carried away since there are a ton more styles of nails and hair for Halloween characters and costumes, especially since I have another set of characters and costumes to do, I’ll leave this post as is and hope you all found it useful in bringing your halloween costume and character to life.